Victims of WWII: Lost but Not Forgotten
Love, Resistance, and Revolt: Mala Zimetbaum at Auschwitz-Birkenau
19m
After the turning point at Stalingrad in 1943, the Red Army began pushing west — but inside Auschwitz-Birkenau, the machinery of death continued. Among the deportees from Belgium was Mala Zimetbaum, a brilliant young Jewish woman fluent in six languages.
Assigned as a translator and runner in the women’s camp, Mala used her position to secretly help prisoners — warning them of selections, arranging lighter work, smuggling messages, and saving lives. In 1944, together with Polish prisoner Edward “Edek” Galiński, she carried out one of the most daring escape attempts in Auschwitz history.
Captured after two weeks of freedom, Mala faced public execution — but even in her final moments, she defied the SS and encouraged fellow prisoners to remain strong.
Her story is one of love, courage, and resistance in the darkest place in Europe.
Up Next in Season 1
-
Olympic Gold Medalist in the Shadow o...
Estella Blits, born Estella Agsteribbe, was an Olympic gold medalist and one of the brightest stars of the 1928 Amsterdam Games. As part of the Dutch women’s gymnastics team, she helped secure gold and became a symbol of discipline, strength, and national pride.
When Nazi Germany occupied the Ne...
-
Priest Who Risked His Life to Help Pr...
After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, repression spread rapidly—and those who spoke out risked everything.
Otto Neururer, an Austrian Catholic priest, was among the few who openly rejected Nazi racial ideology and defended the dignity of all people. His stance led to his arrest and d...
-
Soviet Revenge in Germany: The Mass R...
As the Red Army pushed into the Third Reich in 1945, millions of German civilians faced a wave of terror, revenge, and violence. Fueled by years of suffering under the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, many Soviet soldiers carried out widespread looting, killings, and the mass rape of German wom...
